Scoring woes continue for young boys’ lax team

Junior Tommy Galvin has been the Bulldogs’ most consistent offensive weapon. (Mike Barucci photo)

The Canton High boys’ lacrosse team has reached the most challenging part of its schedule — and it has shown in the results as the young squad fell to 4-7 overall with losses last week to Foxboro 9-2 and King Philip 14-2.

While the Bulldogs have continued to play well defensively, led by senior captains Matt Bagley and Ben Lodge, they seem to have fallen into a bit of a scoring funk and are averaging just four goals per contest over their last six games.

“That’s just really been the theme of this season,” said head coach Bill Bendell. “We’re just very young offensively and we’re struggling to score goals. But lately we’ve even struggled to possess the ball for that long.”

Part of the issue, said Bendell, is that the competition has gotten tougher, as was the case in both games last week.

On Monday, Canton hosted a talented Foxboro squad that boasts the likely Hockomock League MVP in Luc Valenza, a dominant defender who has committed to play lacrosse at UMass Amherst next spring.

“Foxboro is very, very good defensively,” said Bendell. “Valenza is a monster. He hits, he’s athletic. They had him roaming off the ball in the center of the defense, almost daring you to try to get in there.”

The Bulldogs did have a couple of nice goals — one on a well-placed shot by Tommy Galvin and another by freshman Joe Mulkay, who sprinted past his man and beat the Foxboro goalie for his first career goal.

Canton also did a nice job controlling faceoffs behind Bagley, Mulkay, and sophomore Eddie McCabe. In addition, talented senior Eric Wong saw his first game action after missing nine games due to injury, and he played great in limited minutes. “Hopefully, he’ll be a shot in the arm for us,” said Bendell.

Unfortunately, Wednesday’s road game against King Philip proved to be far less encouraging, as the Bulldogs fell behind quickly and never recovered, losing 14-2.

But the silver lining, according to Bendell, is that the team turned around and had arguably its two best practices of the season on Thursday and Friday. And the seniors continue to be excellent leaders — hustling on every play, working hard, and showing the younger players what it takes to win at the varsity level.

“I don’t know what our record is going to be at the end of the season,” said Bendell, “but I’m confident we’re going to play hard, practice hard, and be as good a team as we can be. And that’s all you can ask for as a coach.”

This week, the Bulldogs had another tough stretch with three games in six days, all against winning teams — Franklin (9-4) on Monday, Cohasset (11-2) on Wednesday, and at Sharon (7-4) on Saturday.

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